[debbugs-tracker] bug#15421: closed (RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a uid rather than username)

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Your message dated Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:01:10 +0100
with message-id <address@hidden>
and subject line Re: bug#15421: RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a 
uid rather than username
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #15421,
regarding RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a uid rather than username
to be marked as done.

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15421: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=15421
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--- Begin Message --- Subject: RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a uid rather than username Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:13:17 -0600 User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130805 Thunderbird/17.0.8

I just created a local user named "0" (don't ask), and noticed that
although we can do things like "chown +0:+0 file" to FORCE a file to be
owned by uid 0 (rather than the uid of my unfortunate "0" username),
it's a bit harder to learn details about a uid hidden by a poor username.

$ id 0
uid=14987(0) gid=14987(0) groups=14987(0)
$ id +0
id: +0: no such user

Of course, everyone "knows" that uid 0 is named "root", but this
question applies to any other unfortunate uid/name collision.
Therefore, I propose that we support 'id +0' as the way to say 'give me
the details about uid 0, no matter if username 0 also happens to exist'.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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--- Begin Message --- Subject: Re: bug#15421: RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a uid rather than username Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:01:10 +0100 User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130110 Thunderbird/17.0.2

On 09/19/2013 08:24 PM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 09/19/2013 08:13 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
>> I just created a local user named "0" (don't ask), and noticed that
>> although we can do things like "chown +0:+0 file" to FORCE a file to be
>> owned by uid 0 (rather than the uid of my unfortunate "0" username),
>> it's a bit harder to learn details about a uid hidden by a poor username.
>>
>> $ id 0
>> uid=14987(0) gid=14987(0) groups=14987(0)
>> $ id +0
>> id: +0: no such user
>>
>> Of course, everyone "knows" that uid 0 is named "root", but this
>> question applies to any other unfortunate uid/name collision.
>> Therefore, I propose that we support 'id +0' as the way to say 'give me
>> the details about uid 0, no matter if username 0 also happens to exist'.
> 
> Yep that makes sense.
> I see also that FreeBSD does this too.

The attached should address this, in combination with:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2013-09/msg00043.html

thanks,
Pádraig.

id-uid.patch
Description: Text Data

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